4 4F- .*reili441. 1. 5 7 Controversy Over Israel Law of Return, and Diaspora Jewry Passover Greetings BLUE FLASH CHEMICAL CO. Wishing All Our Friends and Customers a joyous and happy Passover BOESKY'S 22060 W. 10 Mile Rd., nr. Lahser Happy Passover to Our Friends and Patrons COHEN & SON Kosher Meat & Poultry Market LI 7-4121 26035 Coolidge Happy Holiday BANK OF COMMERCE Hamtramck, Centerline, Warren, W. Utica, Avon & -ghelby Twps. Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Holiday Greetings to All Our Friends Continental Food - Brokerage Co. 17501 West Eight Mile Road Detroit, Michigan 48235 255-5880 By SEYMOUR SIEGEL Chairman, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly (Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.) On Jan. 9 of this year, the Reform. and Conservative movements urged the newly elected Israel government to resist the political pressure exerted by Orthodox groups who want- to amend Israel's revised Law of Return. This law was adopted by Israel's parliament (Knesset) in 1970. The Law of Return grants every Jew in the world the right to become a citizen of Israel automatically when he or she becomes an immi- grant, with all the rights and privileges granted -such im- migrants to Israel. When this law was drafted, a basic question had to be answered: "Who is to he consideied a Jew?" The present formulation of the Law of Return answers this question: Anyone born of a Jewish mother or anyone who has become a Jew through conversion. This Passover Greetings FREEDLAND STRUCTURAL STEEL CO. 425-8100 - GREENE'S HAMBURGERS Happy Holiday Greetings Specializing in Carry-Out Service — Open 24 Hours 341-4717 13545 W. 7 Mile cor. Schaefer 861-0188 10001 W. McNichols GR 4-7980 24155 Orchard Lake Passover Best Wishes CAPITAL MORTGAGE CORP. 26600 Telegraph, Suite 100 355-4000 Southfield, Mich. 48075 THE RADERMAN FAMILY And All Employees of KITCHEN MAID FOODS. Distributors of Carmel Israeli Wine and -Champagne, Carmel Kosher Food Products, Kedem Wine and Champagne, Kosher Zion Delicatessen Products, B. Manischewitz Products and Hudson Spices. Extended Best Wishes to the Community For A Happy and Joyous Passover I 24660 DEQUINDRE 759-3113 A Happy Healthy Passover To All Ben & Harry Kosins logs FINE APPAREL FOR MEN means that anyone born a non-Jew and subsequently brought into the Jewish fold through conversion by a Reform, Conservative or Or- thodox rabbi can claim all rights granted by the Law-of Return. When the legislation was adopted by the Knesset in 1970, various Orthodox groups began an intensive campaign to have this law amended to read that con- verts to Judaism would be acceptable only "if convert- ed according to.Jewish law" (al pi halakha). Since the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel has exclusive control of all matters pertaining to Jewish law, such an amendment would mean, in practice, that any conversion supervised by non-Orthodox rabbis would not be recognized, regardless of whether or not the conver- sion met the standards of Jewish law. With the formation of a new government in Israel, the controversy has been re- Stamps and Homing Birds By DAVID ScHWARTZ (Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.) 32890 Capitol Ave. ,..11/12;iiiiiI14,rW..tel, With the price of stamps having risen, there is some- thing of a mail crisis. Some have expressed the fear that the gas and electric company and even the installment houses may soon stop send- ing bills. It has been suggested that perhaps we should return .to the use of birds for commun- ication. Noah got good results with a dove, when the postal system was disrupted by the flood. It is said the Roths- childs got their start using homing pigeons to get the first news of the defeat of Napoleon, enabling them to cash in on the Stock Ex- change. James Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald, got many scoops by building up his pigeon carry- ing news service, getting . "scoops" thereby over other newspapers. Homing pigeons would pro- vide cheaper service. What does a pigeon need? A few crumbs of bread and the pi- geons don't have any unions. Of course, times are differ- ent from what they were in Bennett's day. Probably if we used pigeons today we would find that they too would unionize, demand cake instead of bread and also fringe benefits such as more trees over park benches. - The invention. of the tele- graph put the pigeons out of business. No town soon was without a telegraph office. In any good sized town there Europe Out-Phoned TEL AVIV (ZINS) — The ministry of communications reports there are 21 tele- phones for every 100 resi- dents, a ratio higher than that of England, France, or Germany. There are now 500,000 telephones installed in Israel, with a waiting list of 140,000. Every new in- stallation entails a capital outlay by the state of IL 10,000 ($2,500). THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, April 5, 1974-53 were many, but today it is heartbreaking to see what happened to a great business. The few telegraph offices that exist have turned to singing Happy Birthday, and selling candy. The telegraph was killed by_the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell had read the story of Paul Revere in the American Revolution. Revere was a dentist. He was work- ing on an extraction and in the middle he had to let go, jump on his horse and go shouting "The British are coming." It broke Bell's heart. If Revere had a tele- phone, he could have called Sam Adams and in a minute the Minutemen would have been ready. So Bell invented the telephone. But the Brit- ish stopped coming, so it didn't help much. After the telephone, an Englishman, Maxwell, math- ematically figured out there must be radio waves. Then a German Jew, Heinrich Hertz, produced the Hertz- ian waves, than an Italian Gugliemo Marconi took the final step and lo there was the wireless! But the end is not yet. Mark Twain found he could write a letter and not put a stamp on it and not even send it and it got there any- way. He said the act of writ- ing seemed to carry the thoughts by telepathy. He said just tear up a letter to someone and that someone will answer nevertheless. He had that experience. Among Jews, if your ears tingle, they say, someone is thinking of you. Einstein expressed a belief in the possibility: of telepath- ic communication. He noted that the existence of electric currents and radio waves had also been .ri d i c u.l e d. He thought it was possible that there are human emanations of which we are ignorant. Telepathy would be the ideal solution for the Post Office problem. You wouldn't need . any stamps and you wouldn't worry about spelling and if the gas company sent you a bill, you could tele- pathically tell them what you think of them.' , newed. The ruling Labor Party apparently cannot maintain a workable major- ity in parliament without the votes of the National Reli- gious Party. This party wants to exact a price from Mrs. Meir and her colleagues for their participation in the new government: an amendment to the Law of Return which would disqualify conversions by non-Orthodox rabbis. Diaspora Jews, especially in North America, are af- filiated in overwhelming numbers with the Conserva- tive and Reform movements. Conservative and Reform congregations and leaders provide the bulkof the sup- porters of_Israel. Thus the legitimacy and the status of the majority of the Jewish religious community would be seriously challenged if the Israel government succumbs to Orthodox pressure by amending the Law of Return, making it impossible for converts brought into Juda- ism by non-Orthodox rabbis to claim Israel citizenship under Israeli law. Such a denial of legitimacy to the religious leaders of the ma- jority of American. Jews would severely strain the re- lationship of world Jewry With the Jewish state, at a time when unity is needed more than ever. Requiring Jews converted by non- Orthodox rabbis to submit to another ceremony before be- ing allowed to claim Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return would represent an intolerable situation. Because of these congider- ations, the Reform and Con- servative movements have vigorously opposed any change -in the status quo. Their position does not imply a denial of the authority of Jewish law. Conservative rabbis, for example, insist upon the traditional require- ments for conversion: the acceptance of Jewish beliefs and practices, ritual immer- sion (tevilla) and, for males, ritual circumcision. In many localities, the Reform and Conservative m o v e m e n t s jointly sponsor classes for converts. The differences of interpretation and of em- phasis do not represent a denial of the force of Jewish law (halakha) in the area of conversion to Judaism. The fact that the religious establishment in Israel is controlled- exclusively by Or- thodox rabbis and the refusal of the Israel's chief rab- binate to recognize Conser- vative and Reform Judaism as legitimate expressions of Jewish faith, make it neces- sary for the Israel govern- ment to retain the present wording of the Law of Re- turn, which recognizes con- versions to Judaism by any recognized rabbi, Orthodox or non-Orthodox. A sur- render to the pressures of the National Religious Party_ and its allies calling for an amendment to that law would disrupt the close ties which bind world Jewry with the state of Israel. Passover Greetings Bagel Restaurant & Caterers 13928 Woodward 867-0003 Highland Park Passover Greetings From BESSINGER'S 23535 Woodward, Ferndale Passover Greetings DAVISON AUTO PARTS 4238 E. Davison TW 2-0100 all11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111E Holiday Good Cheer = SERWER'S WHOLESALERS 4646 Michigan Ave. Fa 826-6800 miumsmuulluma limumnimu — F.- Holiday Greetings SCHILLER MILLINERY STORES, Inc. Downtown, Northland, Westland, Oaklnad Mall, Troy, 4940 Schaefer, Dearborn, 11978 E. Warren, Detroit 0 Passover Greetings BJ_TROX SMOKE From EDDIE CITRON S 0 *cte, 3 Locations to Serve. You 23077 Greenfield Advance Building (Lower Level) Southfield Mich. 48075 559-9119 17017 W. 9 Mile Rd. 25900 Greenfield Shiawasse Hotel Corner of Lincoln 559-5559 968-1110